Whistleblower: ‘The VA System Is A Perfect Example Of Cronyism’

Bad hiring practices have led to a culture of cronyism that is as at the center of a burgeoning number of scandals at the Overton-Brooks Veteran Administration (VA) Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Shea Wilkes, who blew the whistle on the secret waiting list in the mental health department, told The Daily Caller that he also filed a complaint about bad hiring practices alongside the waiting-list complaint.

Wilkes said a full audit of the hiring practices in the mental health department occurred after it was discovered that many candidates didn’t even have their files scored during the interview process.

Wilkes served as one of four individuals on the hiring committee for the current chief of staff of the Mental Health Department at Overton-Brooks, where he charges he saw cronyism first hand: Though three of the four people on the committee scored Dr. Charles Patterson poorly, Patterson was hired when hospital Chief of Staff Patrick McGauly overrode his three colleagues.

According to Jessica Jacobsen, a media relations specialist with the VA, there was nothing untoward with the hiring process.

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